Chapter XIX

Speakers who are out to spread the Geetha have multiplied nowadays and as a consequence, and a variety of interpretations, most of them far removed from the genuine one, has emanated, clouding the true significance. Interpretations follow the nature and character of the exponent. Once an opinion is formed, he tries to buttress it with appropriate arguments and prove all others wrong. It is then repeated parrot-like on every occasion; no attempt is made to practise the Geetha and make it part of one's actual life. Such persons pretend to be great Geetha Pracharaks and go about heavy with the burden of credentials and titles. They ruin themselves by this deception and undermine the trust placed on the Geetha.

The words of God are, each one, for translation into actual life, not for scattering into the ears of men to reap fame. But the times have gone so awry, that they are today misused for acquiring publicity and praise! Those who listen to the expositions of these Pracharaks are also failing to question their bona fides; they do not care to examine whether the persons who extol the Geetha to the skies have tasted the sweetness of its teachings. Words and deeds are far apart; they exhort others but those who are exhorted find that the teachers do not themselves follow the lesson! No, not even one in a million.

There are some who boast that they have the entire Geetha on the tip of the tongue; that they can roll out, on the spot, any sloka from the Geetha which you want to hear, if only the chapter and number are given; or, they can quote chapter and number for any phrase or word you give. I am inclined to laugh when such scholarship is exhibited. Poor tongue, that it should carry so much on its tip, without any of it being absorbed in actual life! A gramophone record can repeat as well as they, and with equal benefit to itself. Practising one verse certainly yields more benefit than learning all the verses by rote and retaining them in memory. Arjuna proved every word of Krishna true, by practising it. His sincerity won him the Grace of Krishna.